Uncommon Business is a blog about people who make money online selling unusual, strange and sometimes bizarre things or provide curious services. This isn’t “One Hundred And One Ideas For Your Homebased Business” – only real, working businesses with URLs provided, so you can do further investigation on your own. And if you do own an unusual web business, make sure you submit your story to us. SHLD

Tuesday, March 05, 2013

10 Totally Stupid Online Business Ideas That Made Someone Rich

How to get rich the smart way? Looking for internet business ideas? Read what some creative people did:
1. Million Dollar Homepage
1000000
pixels, charge a dollar per pixel – that’s perhaps the dumbest idea
for online business anyone could have possible come up with. Still,
Alex Tew, a 21-year-old who came up with the idea, is now a
millionaire.
2. PickyDomains
Hire another person to think of a cool domain name for you? No
way people would pay for this. Actually, naming domain names for others
turned out a thriving business, especially, when you make the entire
process risk free. PickyDomains currently has a waiting list of people
who want to PAY the service to come up with a snappy memorable domain
name. PickyDomains is expected to hit six figures this year. Full Story

3. Doggles
Create
goggles for dogs and sell them online? Boy, this IS the dumbest idea
for a business. How in the world did they manage to become millionaires
and have shops all over the world with that one? Beyond me.
4. Bitrix24
Bitrix24
started out with an idea that's both gutsy and crazy - become the
Facebook of corporate intranets. While corporate intranet usually costs
tens of thousands of dollars to develop and deploy and may take months,
Bitrix24 started offering free online intranet via SaaS model to small
businesses and is now one of the fastest growing business social
networks. Full story
5. AntennaBalls
You
can’t sell antenna ball online. There is no way. And surely it
wouldn’t make you rich. But this is exactly what Jason Wall did, and
now he is now a millionaire. Full Story
6. FitDeck
Create
a deck of cards featuring exercise routines, and sell it online for
$18.95. Sounds like a disaster idea to me. But former Navy SEAL and
fitness instructor Phil Black reported last year sales of $4.7 million.
Surely beats what military pays.
7. PositivesDating.Com
How
would you like to go on a date with an HIV positive person? Paul
Graves and Brandon Koechlin thought that someone would, so they created
a dating site for HIV positive folks last year. Projected 2006 sales
are $110,000, and the two hope to have 50,000 members by their two-year
mark.
8. Designer Diaper Bags
Christie
Rein was tired of carrying diapers around in a freezer bag. The
34-year-old mother of three found herself constantly stuffing diapers
for her infant son into freezer bags to keep them from getting scrunched
up in her purse. Rein wanted something that was compact, sleek and
stylish, so in November 2004, she sat down with her husband, Marcus, who
helped her design a custom diaper bag that's big enough to hold a
travel pack of wipes and two to four diapers. With more than $180,000 in
sales for 2005, Christie's company, Diapees & Wipees, has bags in
22 different styles, available online and in 120 boutiques across the
globe for $14.99.
9. SantaMail
Ok, how’s that for a brilliant idea. Get a postal address at
North Pole, Alaska, pretend you are Santa Claus and charge parents 10
bucks for every letter you send to their kids? Well, Byron Reese sent
over 200000 letters since the start of the business in 2001, which
makes him a couple million dollars richer. Full Story

10. Lucky Wishbone Co.
Fake
wishbones. Now, this stupid idea is just destined to flop. Who in the
world needs FAKE PLASTIC wishbones? A lot of people, it turns out. Now
producing 30,000 wishbones daily (they retail for 3 bucks a pop) Ken
Ahroni, the company founder, expects 2006 sales to reach $1 million.
11. BonusSite X
is currently the most popular online design contest marketplace.
Like others, it relies on the concept of crowd sourcing in bringing
together a pool of designers from all over the world and small to
medium-sized businesses, which needs design solutions. While it’s hard
not to be impressed with Site X...
12. Bonus 2From 0 To $30,000 A Month With Dropshipping
To see other businesses and online business ideas that have not made the top 10 list but came pretty close, visit Business Ideas Blog